[Stoves] News: India's new LPG customers seem to not use as much LPG

[Sujoy Chaudhury]

Nikhil
One other factor deterring the use of LPG is the problem of access to a LPG
cylinder. Unlike urban households where cylinders are delivered by the
agency, rural households do not have the privilege of cylinders delivered
to their homes.
This is a big problem as one has to lug an empty cylinder on a bicycle
/bike /cart /van etc and then carry back a filled cylinder with the same
transportation. Not only does the journey involve costs it also means that
the man of the house has to spend a few hours running this chore. I have
heard of people who have to waste an entire day to complete the process.

Regards
Sujoy Chaudhury

On 27 Jun 2017 8:47 p.m., "Nikhil Desai" <pienergy2008 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Two recent stories below.
>
> I am not surprised. Lower-income people with access to woodfuel may have
> economic reasons to not switch to LPG completely. (At Rs 65/US$, monthly
> expenditures by the bottom 20% of households is about $100. A subsidized
> gas cylinder at Rs 450 = $6.60.) The terms of loan for initial cylinder and
> stove are also a deterrent.
>
> Maybe Johnson-Chiang can help generate new numbers for premature mortality
> in India from Household Air Pollution. If a complete or near-complete
> switch to clean cooking solutions at Tier 4 is required, Modi's subsidy
> scheme may be a biggest boondoggle ever.
>
> Alternatively, it is entirely possible that the poor just do not consume
> as much cooking fuel as the middle class, in urban or rural areas.
>
> My observations in Gujarat, Maharashtra were that making and serving tea
> inside homes was a middle-class phenomenon. Who else has the time to start
> up a stove six times a day to serve family members and guests? Who has
> guests any more on regular work days? The working poor just don't have
> enough variety to cook -- I am not talking about destitutes or calorie
> deficit - that requires more fuel.
>
> This is a common phenomenon - lower incomes mean lower useful energy
> required in cooking, and even more of "outsourcing the kitchen".
>
> It's not as if WHO "database" was based on actual measurements year after
> year.
>
> Kirk Smith's challenge to biomass stove community just got a little more
> urgent. (Separately).
>
>
> Nikhil
>
>
> India’s poor are not using LPG cylinders they got under Ujjwala scheme
> <http://www.livemint.com/Politics/oqLQDFKNuMdbmLEVL88krN/Indias-poor-are-not-using-LPG-cylinders-they-got-under-Ujjw.html>
> , Roshan Kishore, Mint 27 June 2017
>
> "Year-on-year (y-o-y) growth in LPG consumption increased from 9% in
> 2015-16 to 9.8% in 2016-17. Contrast this with y-o-y growth in LPG
> customers, which increased from 10.2% in 2015-16 to 16.2% in 2016-17.
>
> There is nothing surprising about this. PMUY beneficiaries do not have to
> pay security deposit or other overhead costs while taking LPG connections.
> They also have the option of paying for gas stove and first refill at the
> time of getting connection in instalments. However, there is no extra
> concession from the second refill stage.
>
> Even a subsidised cylinder costs around Rs450. Paying for one LPG cylinder
> per month is not an insignificant expenditure for poor households in India.
> A Plainfacts column had reported that the bottom 20% of India’s households
> spent less than Rs7,000 per month in 2016. Kerosene, which is around Rs20
> per litre, or firewood is a much cheaper cooking fuel.
>
> Modi’s pet Ujjawala scheme wobbles as many beneficiaries drop out after
> their first LPG cylinder
> <https://scroll.in/article/839961/modis-pet-ujjawala-scheme-wobbles-as-many-beneficiaries-drop-out-after-their-first-lpg-cylinder>,
> Dhirendra K. Jha, Scroll.in 11 June 2017
>
> "Since the great majority of below poverty line households have taken
> Ujjawala connections using the loan on offer, they have to pay for refills
> at the market rate – they cannot avail of the LPG subsidy (which the oil
> firms now pocket) until they have paid the loan back via the subsidies.
> Since the subsidy per cylinder amounts to around one-fourth of its cost,
> Ujjawala beneficiaries must refill their cylinders around seven to eight
> times at the market rate for the subsidy to accumulate to be enough to
> write off the loan."
>
>
> On 1 May 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Pradhan Mantri
> Ujjwala Yojna (PMUY). The scheme intends to provide 50 million LPG
> connections to women from Below Poverty Line (BPL) families. It has been a
> roaring success so far. 20 million LPG connections
> <http://www.livemint.com/Industry/KQwnD5F0gTY3gqyxylH5QJ/Ujjwala-scheme-exceeds-target-covers-over-2-crore-household.html> have
> been issued in 2016-17 against a target of 15 million. These numbers
> suggest a revolution in cooking methods for the poor.
>
>
>
>
> A state-wise comparison lends support to this logic. Relatively poorer
> states such as Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are the ones with
> the highest mismatch between sales and customer growth between 2015-16 and
> 2016-17.
>
> Given the high growth in the number of LPG subscribers, the government is
> right in celebrating the success of PMUY. However, it should make a fresh
> assessment whether these numbers have taken us closer towards more
> widespread use of a clean cooking fuel.
> First Published: Tue, Jun 27 2017. 09 04 AM IST
> ------
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.bioenergylists.org/pipermail/stoves_lists.bioenergylists.org/attachments/20170627/0cad1bc3/attachment.html>